“Arsenal Contemporary Art New York is pleased to present This Sacred Vessel (pt. 2). After exploring how the relevance of landscape painting is informed by ecological anxiety in This Sacred Vessel (pt. 1), this new iteration turns to the long-established heritage of figurative painting. In a society where images of bodies are pervasive, the nine artists gathered in this exhibition toy with the codes of the canonical genre to present gender-bending, culturally ambiguous, tragicomic figures that disturb the normalizing standards that proliferate in popular culture. Under their skilled brushstrokes, these artists reconfigure the body as symbolic sites.”

When We See Us, Sydney Vernon at Thierry Goldberg Gallery

“I’m really interested in sharing histories through a personal lens rather than reinforcing ‘textbook histories’ that generalize and skip over the specifics of everyday life. I often sift through my family photos, and consider the larger climate of the world in those moments. The photos have the ability to directly capture a specific moment as it relates to my family and indirectly reference the a world condition that surrounded it’s making.”

On The Waves With…, presented by Shimmer

On The Waves With... invites people to share the music they listen to while working, making, reading, thinking, writing, cleaning, or moving that are influential to their practice. Also, we invite the contributors to invite another person to make a playlist thereby expanding the aural, and joyously unrestrained, beyond our community and into new possibilities.

Pressed Coffee Conversation: You, your friends, your family

This week, our Pressed Coffee conversation segment is suspended in order to encourage everyone to have their own conversation, one on race, (anti-)racism, class, white privilege and anti-blackness. It is important that people in positions of privilege examine that privilege, and particularly white-people to examine their own white privilege. A major part of this movement we’re all living through is to work on revolutionizing our perception of race, class and the United States. Talk with your friends; talk with your family members.

Some of these articles/resources might help inform your approach to this conversation, depending on whom you intend to talk with, and also help you understand that work involved in becoming self-aware, among other qualities:

Talking About Race, a web portal from the National Museum of African American History & Culture

How To Be Anti-racist: Speak Out In Your Own Circles, from CNN/Boston News

Critical Conversations: Dr. Robin DiAngelo on White Fragility and Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, from the conscious kid

Me & White Supremacy: How To Check Your White Privilege, Zoe Beaty for Refinery29

For white people considering anti-racism, when your Black friends and colleagues have had enough, Alanah Nichole for Technically

Why We Need To Call Out Factual Racism, Luvvie Ajayi for TED

nox library free book distribution and protest support fundraiser

BOOK DISTRIBUTION AND PROTEST SUPPORT FUNDRAISER! nox library in Detroit is working to collect/purchase the following material to distribute through our community: books, snacks, water, masks and supplies.

BOOK DISTRIBUTION: Knowing how inaccessible some critical texts are, while also how important it is to support the authors, distributors, indie publishers and booksellers that make these books happen, we aim to purchase and distribute throughout our Detroit communities, as well as at protests, books on race, social (in)justice and inequality. We have a goal of reaching a wide audience by hopefully including children’s books and YA novels as well as languages that reflect the city’s population. nox library needs your help!

While PDF files are circulating internet so that people can obtain essential literature for free, we are keeping in mind that the digital divide prevent many Detroit students and their families from having that privilege. Click here to learn more about the the city’s digital divide.

PROTESTOR SUPPORT: The marches against police brutality have occurred everyday since last Friday. The march journeys 7 miles each day at the very least. When enduring this exercise while also risking so much in face of the police, it is pertinent that these protestors get the supplies they need! We hope to continue passing out water and snacks along with other necessary items during marches and sit-ins.

Donations are being accepted via PayPal: NoxLibrary@gmail.com

To contribute in other ways, please email NoxLibrary@gmail.com

Power to the people when knowledge is spread flyer designed by Jamie Harrison for nox library’s book distribution and protest support efforts. — *Power to the people when knowledge is spread* flyer designed by Jamie Harrison for nox library’s book distribution and protest support efforts.

3 WAYS TO CONTRIBUTE:

Monetary donations: donate any amount you wish to this project and also give preference as to how you’d like your donation to be directed: either the purchase of specific books (after vetting); on snacks, water and supplies for protestors; or no preference! PayPal accepted: NoxLibrary@gmail.com. Venmo and Cash App also accepted—please email for info! noxlibrary@gmail.com
Donate your stuff! Purchase books online and have them sent here, or drop off books and/or snacks, water and supplies.
Knowledge/source sharing: tell us what books you think we must include, or if you’re a frequent protestor, what supplies are best for your protest? And of course, when the time comes, help spread the word to those who may benefit from a free book.

we’re excited to see this project come into fruition.

What We’re Reading

If you’ve had the time and focus to read a book for fun right now, I’m truly impressed.

nox library, in collaboration with supporters of our fundraiser, has compiled a lengthy list of essential reads for these times and forward. Here are the five most applauded (in no particular order):

Fascism: What It Is And How To Fight It by Leon Trotsky: “Why fascism was able to conquer only in those countries where social democratic or Stalinist parties blocked the workers and their allies from utilizing a revolutionary situation to remove the capitalists from power.”
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison: “Set in the author's girlhood hometown of Lorain, Ohio, it tells the story of black, eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove. Pecola prays for her eyes to turn blue so that she will be as beautiful and beloved as all the blond, blue-eyed children in America. In the autumn of 1941, the year the marigolds in the Breedloves' garden do not bloom. Pecola's life does change- in painful, devastating ways.
What its vivid evocation of the fear and loneliness at the heart of a child's yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment. The Bluest Eye remains one of Toni Morrisons's most powerful, unforgettable novels- and a significant work of American fiction.”
Freedom Is A Constant Struggle by Angela Davis: “In these newly collected essays, interviews, and speeches, world-renowned activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis illuminates the connections between struggles against state violence and oppression throughout history and around the world.”
Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat by J. Sakai: “The authoritative attack on the idea that the American working class is primarily white, with Black, Asian and Indian labour being little more than special interest groups. This book presents US history from a working class, revolutionary and non-white perspective.”
Origins of an Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit by Thomas J. Sugrue: “Once America's ‘arsenal of democracy,’ Detroit has become the symbol of the American urban crisis. In this reappraisal of America's dilemma of racial and economic inequality, Thomas Sugrue asks why Detroit and other industrial cities have become the sites of persistent racialized poverty.”

Resources

Social media is robust with various ways to learn and help out with the current anti-racism movement. It would feel redundant to list too many of the widely circulating sites here, however, here are a few of those plus others to help you find ways to contribute to the movement.

LULA + RAIKOU <3

never a bad time for these baby monsters! squirrel watching.

Pressed Coffee 03: May 29 - June 4, 2020

It goes without saying that when we thought our current moment in history couldn’t be any more monumental, it became just that. This edition of Pressed Coffee is focused on the Black Lives Matter movement, police brutality, and how we can get involved.

On Society & Politics

Educate To Liberate: Black Panther Liberation Schools

From Jobs To Homeownership, Protests Put Spotlight On Racial Economic Divide

White Cops In Black Communities Underscore Tension In Michigan Protests

Attention Tiger King Fans: Judge Gives Carole Baskin Control of Joe Exotic’s Former Zoo

#Bunkerboy’s Photo-Op War

Black And Latino Chicagoans Unite To Condemn Anti-Blackness. ‘Don’t Let Them Divide Us’

Suddenly, Public Health Officials Say Social Justice Matters More Than Social Distance